ReaComp doesn't actually limit!
Set all time constants and knee to 0. Ratio to infinity. Go ahead and tick the "Limit Output" box even. Leave Oversampling off. This should be a hard clipper at the threshold, and no matter how loud the input gets, the output should never get louder than the threshold. It works up to a (admittedly kind of absurdly high) point, but then suddenly seems to break loose and the output escalates quickly. I have not yet identified the exact point at which it looses it's grip, but I have seen it happen a number of times.
My test procedure: Please mute your speakers one way or another before you try this!
JS White Noise set to -12db > ReaDelay set to default but with a positive feedback value > ReaComp set as described above.
If it matters, it's Reaper 5.2 32bit on XPSP3 AMD dual core 3.11GHz and 3G RAM.
To be fair, there aren't many things labeled "compressor" or even "limiter" that can actually handle this. Most break down in one way or another. Several of the included JS "limiters" seem to overshoot and end up heading toward silence.(!!!) I suspect that might have something to do with the way they approximate the fp to db calculation. It's "close enough" at realistic levels, but when crazy kids like me try to do stupid things with them...
The knee parameter doesn't really change this behavior, except that the maximum output before it freaks out will be a bit higher than threshold because of the way that curve works.
I use ReaComp for darn near everything that involves manipulating dynamics, and I don't have many complaints, but this is kind of a big one.
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